THE SQUIRREL. 281 



are those of English forests, and it is conceiv- 

 able that the question of mutual warmth in the 

 more rigorous climate has something to do 

 with it ! * 



THE YOUNG. 



Only one litter is produced per year, the young 

 numbering from three to six ; they appear in 

 May and June, and are not able to fend for them- 

 selves till at least five weeks old. They remain 

 with their parents for fully eight weeks, or, as 

 already described, the family may remain united 

 till winter. Certainly the father has nothing to 

 do with the offspring till they are old enough to 

 fend for themselves. He may then, in company 

 with his wife, be seen piloting the brood from tree 

 to tree, for squirrels have their runways in the 

 branches, just as the beasts of the earth have 

 their beaten tracks. In passing from tree to tree 

 a squirrel recognises certain bridges, by which it 

 invariably travels in going from one frequented 

 feeding-place to another. In New Galloway, a 

 squirrel used each morning to come from a beech- 

 wood to feed in a fir-tree in one corner of my 

 garden, and I noticed particularly that it came 

 each day by the same beaten track. Dropping 

 from a silver birch at the edge of the wood, it 

 alighted on the moss-covered wall-top, lightly 

 leapt a gap, pranced across the road, bounded 

 on to a certain moss-covered rock, and thence 

 into the tree. The young squirrels are taught 

 by their parents all these leaps and crossings, 

 and so by a thorough familiarity of their home- 



* I am inclined to think that very often one of the young, perhaps the 

 weakling of the family, remains with the mother through the winter ; 

 hence it is very difficult to arrive at a definite decision regarding mating. 

 H. M. B. 



